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Instagram Engagement Report 2019: Tagging Users Doesn't Generate Engagement

Instagram Engagement Report 2019: Tagging Users Doesn't Generate Engagement

Home Blog Social Media Social listening Instagram Engagement Report 2019: Tagging Users Doesn't Generate Engagement

This short post is the fourth of a series of five in which we share some of the results of our latest Instagram Engagement Report.

  1. Video crushes the numbers
  2. The 19 most used hashtags in 2018
  3. The 19 most engaging hashtags of 2018
  4. Tagging users doesn’t generate engagement

Now, if you want to learn all there’s to know about the latest trends to generate more engagement on Instagram download our free 30+ pages report.
Instagram Engagement Report 2019

Tagging Users Doesn’t Generate Engagement

This is among the most interesting learnings of our analysis.
When you tag someone on Instagram (or on any other social media platform for that matter), they receive an instant notification, increasing —in theory—your chances of them getting involved with your content.
But that’s only theory.
In reality, the more users you tag, the less engagement you generate.
instagram engagement report median likes users tagged

What does it mean for businesses?

Keeping in mind that this insight takes influential users’ behavior into account – this doesn’t mean you should stop tagging other users.
It does mean that you should only tag users when it’s relevant to your audience and valuable to the person being tagged.
When Katy Perry, Neymar or Selena Gomez post something on Instagram, they rarely tag anyone nor utilize other hashtags but their own branded ones. Yet, they still generate millions on interaction.
Here’s a recent—and hilarious—post from Katy Perry to illustrate this.

View this post on Instagram

hi to whoever made this edit 😘

A post shared by KATY PERRY (@katyperry) on


Now, I’m sorry to say, but you’re not Katy Perry. And chances are that you’ll never be as popular.
Instagram engagement report social network sad
So as we mentioned,  do tag users – but do so strategically.
Here are a couple of successful examples:
UberEats tags @Restaurants


The MET Museum tags @artists and @professionals


National Geographic tags @Photographers

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Photo by @beverlyjoubert | Over grass drenched with rain from a summer storm, a young lion moves to investigate a mushroom from the ink cap family. He's suffering from a bad eye infection that his siblings also have had but from which they're slowly recovering. He approached the mushroom with purpose and then promptly ate it. It's not that unusual—many species of cats have been known to be attracted to mushrooms—and apparently it's because they're on the hunt for protein. The high glutamate levels in fungi activate cats' umami receptors, signaling that they are protein-rich and edible. Of course many fungi species are not edible, and no doubt mistakes are made by felines around the world, but this ink cap didn't seem to do him any harm. Who knows, perhaps it could even help with that eye infection? #littlebigcats #Okavangolions #mushroomeatingcats

A post shared by National Geographic (@natgeo) on


If the accounts you tag interact back, you’ll get a chance to attract new audiences. And also, crediting people you work with is always a nice thing to do.
Instagram Engagement Report 2019

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Clément René

Clément is a Content Marketer. He creates content to help brands manage their online reputation strategy. If not behind a screen, you can find him reading books in Parisian cafés or exploring the city with his dog.

Content Marketer @Mention